My worst moment: Todd Stashwick and getting the most negative feedback of his career

Bjoern Kommerell

Todd Stashwick on his propensity for getting cast as villains: "I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m 6-foot-2 with dark circles around my eyes and a voice that sounds like it was dragged behind a car."

Todd Stashwick on his propensity for getting cast as villains: "I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m 6-foot-2 with dark circles around my eyes and a voice that sounds like it was dragged behind a car." (Bjoern Kommerell)

Coming off a four-season run as Deacon on the SyFy series “12 Monkeys,” which wrapped earlier this year, Todd Stashwick said goodbye to yet another villain in his repertoire. “It’s funny because half my resume is split between comedy and the other half is murdering people,” he said.

Is there something about his look that says, “I can picture this person doing bad things”?

“I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m 6-foot-2 with dark circles around my eyes and a voice that sounds like it was dragged behind a car,” he said. “Plus a lot of my theater training was in Shakespeare, and I think sci-fi villains that I’ve played on shows like ‘Angel’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ that sort of Shakespearean thing sort of lends itself to those big gothic characters.”

In the Chicago-shot indie “Wild Honey” (at the Music Box Tuesday and the Wilmette Theater Wednesday and Friday), Stashwick taps into his comedic roots, which he honed at Second City. The film centers on a woman (Rusty Schwimmer) who finds herself living at home unhappily with Mom and making ends meet working as a phone sex operator. Stashwick plays her her goofy if selfish and hard-partying ex.

“Look, to be confused with Jeffrey Dean Morgan is high praise. We both have circled the same tree in terms of our careers. And my character Deacon on ‘12 Monkeys’ — which actually came out two years before Negan on ‘Walking Dead’ — at least early on, there was a lot of Venn Diagram crossover of the characters. It was this uncanny thing: They’re both sarcastic and brutal and kind of delight in their brutality. They both need a shave and wear neckerchiefs.”

Stashwick also stars in the “Kim Possible” live-action movie (coming to the Disney Channel in February) playing — you guessed it — another villain.

When asked to share a worst moment from his career, Stashwick prefaced his story with this observation: “In my career, the worst moment was also a singularly formative moment.”

Bjoern Kommerell

Todd Stashwick as Deacon on the SyFy series "12 Monkeys," which wrapped earlier this year.

Todd Stashwick as Deacon on the SyFy series "12 Monkeys," which wrapped earlier this year. (Bjoern Kommerell)

My worst moment …

“This was when I was in college at Loyola University in Chicago and I was maybe 18. I was a theater major and I was doing a play — I’m going to be cagey about the title to protect the innocent — and for whatever reason I was not on my game. I was young and insecure.

“And one night at intermission, the director’s assistant came downstairs and said: ‘Todd Stashwick, I don’t know what you’re doing on that stage but it is bad high school acting — and I’m only down here because the director can’t look you in the face.’

“All the blood drained from my face. As if I wasn’t already insecure, this just kicked me in the gut. This happened in the green room so we weren’t alone. I told was told off in front of many people.

“I think that particular instructor was thinking this was tough love and preparing me for a rough business where people are blunt.

“But with my fragile ego, that just knocked me to the ground. And this is during the intermission of a performance! So I was backstage winded and weeping and I didn’t have thick skin. It was so bad that I missed a set change that I was supposed to be a part of. I just spun out — to the point where I think it factored into me eventually switching schools.

“I ended up transferring to Illinois State University. And I go into one of my first classes of the year and I sit down and who is teaching that class, but the teacher from the previous school, the assistant director who delivered that message to me during intermission. And they turn around and look at me — I’m using ‘they’ because I’m protecting this person! — and a smile kind of curls on their face. And they said, ‘Todd Stashwick, despite all my hard work, you still want to be an actor.’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And they said, ‘Good for you.’

“And to be fair to this person, they ended up being one of my staunchest allies and one of my greatest champions at that school and actually encouraged me to go to Second City. So it really was a tough love situation.”

What was going through his mind when he received that feedback at intermission?

“There were a fair amount of insecure boy tears that were shed, but the show must go on. I had to muscle up and get back on stage and do the show. And far worse things have happened to people than a teacher saying you’re off your game, and they muscled through it and did the performance.

“And this teacher wasn’t saying, ‘For the rest of your life, you shouldn’t be an actor.’ They were saying, ‘You are unfocused and not listening hard enough.’ There was a lack of discipline and it showed in the work, so it was basically: Step up and do the job. This was an educational theater — I was in school, I was there to learn and I was there to take their notes and adjust my performance.

“And circumstances being what they were — and who I was then and who I am now — I wouldn’t change a thing.”

The takeaway …

“One was, I don’t need to go to a school where people don’t necessarily believe in what I’m doing. It was a moment that eventually led to me deciding I’m the master of my own destiny and I know I have something to offer this art form, whether or not it’s currently being appreciated at this venue. And it had a happy ending with this instructor.

“And look, I studied under (famed improv guru) Del Close, who was far more tactless. There’s a lot of that in the acting profession, whether or not I subscribe to it personally. I’ve taught a lot of improv and I’ve taught a lot of acting and I don’t personally do that. I don’t mind being truthful or blunt, but I would never intentionally want to go after someone in that way. And Del certainly chose to express himself in very, very, very blunt terms.

“And in many ways I was ready for it, because I had had that experience in college. Looking back, I was probably screwing around, so yeah: Show up and do your job is another big takeaway.

“When I’m on set, that’s my only job. And if I’m not bringing the goods between ‘action’ and ‘cut,’ I need to step up.”

nmetz@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Nina_Metz

Michael Huete/Newport Beach Film Festival

"Wild Honey" co-stars Rusty Schwimmer (left) and Todd Stashwick on the red carpet at the Newport Beach Film Festival.